173: Hasty Progress (Patreon)

NOTE: How's this arc so far, btw? Enjoying it thus far? We're still somewhat early in the arc, lots of cool stuff to come, both progression and plot-wise :D

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Vir started to ruminate about Haste, but his mind soon wandered. Several paths were open to him now, which was a luxury he’d never had before. He could, of course, choose to pursue new Talents. Or he could learn how to fix Prana Vision. If that didn’t fancy him, he could always work on expanding his prana capacity. Or…

Vir thought of the Chakra System. It was powerful, mysterious, and spoke to something deep within him. He wanted it. Even the thought of opening even his first chakra made his heart pump, but he also knew there was next to no chance of that happening soon.

Maybe his prior incarnations had opened their chakras, but he lacked their memories. Without Parai, Narak, Shardul, and Ekanai to help him, he was no different from any other demon. Which meant it might even be years before he opened his Foundation Chakra, unless he found some way of accelerating the process. That felt unlikely for now, so he forced his excitement down and deferred his pursuit of Chakras. They would have to come later.

Expanding his prana capacity was by far the easiest option of them all, but it felt somewhat wasteful to spend his time on that—he’d acclimatized well enough to use Talents, so expanding his body’s prana capacity slightly further wouldn’t be of immediate use. Not unless he quadrupled it. That might allow him to power Talents solely off the prana in his own body, which would be useful outside the Ash. A worthwhile goal, but something to slowly work toward.

Of the options that remained, fixing Prana Vision and learning Haste were equal in his mind. He chose to focus on the Talent first. After all, he’d spent nearly every waking moment in the Ash thinking about how to do exactly that—ruminating about abilities he should’ve learned long ago, but couldn’t because of insufficient prana.

Haste felt like low hanging fruit. While classified as a Rare Talent, two whole tiers above Leap and High Jump, after watching Tia use it so often, Vir couldn’t understand why.

It was simple, and while it had made her faster, it hadn’t turned her into a blonde blur. It only made her half again as fast as she normally was.

Vir had already learned most of its constituent parts. Micro Leap allowed him to move with great haste, which he’d relied on against the Shredder.

There were two main differences. For one, Micro Leap  was an activated power, not something that remained active continuously during a battle, and it only affected his legs.

Vir felt like a simple application of prana and intent was all that was needed to obtain Haste. He needed sufficient blood prana saturation—which he now had—and the intent to hasten.

Standing and adopting a runner’s stance, Vir allowed the supersaturated layer of prana near his skin to lapse slightly. His body filled with airborne Ash prana. When he neared his blood’s capacity, Vir stopped the process, re-establishing the layer of dense prana near his skin to block any more from entering.

Move, Vir thought, putting power into his legs. The ability activated and he stumbled violently forward, barely catching himself before he fell. His arms also moved faster than normal, but it was unnatural. Jerky.

It was as if his body moved too fast for his mind to process.

Vir tried it again, and while he didn’t fall this time, the result was hardly any better. Something was wrong. This wasn’t the ability Tia possessed. With Haste active, she moved gracefully, as if she’d been born with it. Every part of her was faster.

The hours passed, and Vir experimented. By hour three, he began to grow irritated. By the fifth, he was downright angry.

It shouldn’t be this hard! The principle’s so simple!

While he had grown more proficient at controlling his arms and legs, he couldn’t persist the state. It was one thing to initiate a single Leap. It was another entirely to make every his motion matched that pace.

Vir began to wish he’d been born with a sharper brain. One that could think faster.

His efforts were getting him nowhere, so Vir begrudgingly switched his focus, concentrating on Prana Vision instead.

The first ability he’d ever learned had also proven to be his most vital. Time and time again, Prana Vision provided answers, aiding him in unlocking the mysteries of prana and assisting him in combat. Now, it wasn’t merely useless, it actually worsened his vision, polluting his sight with clouds of prana so dense, he couldn’t see through.

The easiest solution was to turn it off, but Vir had already restricted the blood flow to his eyes as much as he felt was safe. While it had helped, it hadn’t helped enough.

The next option was to strip prana away from the blood going to his eyes, though that was easier said than done. In principle, the process would be like how he shuttled prana from the ground through his legs. There, he supersaturated a thin layer of blood around the blood he wanted to empty. This prevented the prana-starved blood from immediately refilling with prana from nearby.

He planned to do the same here, just that the degree of control it required would be far greater—far less blood flowed to his eyes, requiring a deft touch. Vir had learned firsthand just how dangerous making mistakes in that region could be. If done improperly, he could easily blind himself, or worse.

Thankfully, Vir’s prana manipulation was incomparable to what it had been at Riyan’s place. Taking control of his blood, he formed the supersaturated barrier and evacuated prana from the blood going to his eyes.

For once, it worked exactly as expected. Vir breathed in relief when the cloud dissipated, leaving him with ordinary, unaided vision.

Though, while it cleared up his sight, it also made him feel blind. The ability had grown so natural to him, it’d merged with his ordinary eyesight. It was like being robbed of color—the world just felt wrong.

“Hard to believe I had the opposite sensation when I first got it,” Vir muttered. Prana Vision had been so overwhelming at first, it’d made him nauseous. His mind’s ability to adapt to new sensations boggled him. Leap, for example, now hurled him five times the distance it used to, and he’d already grown used to it. The mere thought of having to walk like he used to felt debilitating.

Vir refocused on the problem at hand. He couldn’t live without Prana Vision. Ideally, he wanted to selectively filter Ash Prana, reducing its presence while amplifying the other affinities. But wishes never made anything come true. If there was a way to accomplish that feat, Vir wasn’t aware of it.

So he did the next best thing—allow a sliver of prana back to his eyes. Doing so would not only reduce eye strain from prana starvation, but it brought his vision back to something more akin to normal.

Ash prana still dominated, though now it no longer worsened his vision. The fix would suffice for the time being—all Ash Beasts possessed Ash Affinity exclusively. There wasn’t much need to see the other affinities as well.

The only issue was the extreme control it required. So much that Vir found it difficult to maintain it unless he concentrated intently.

If only my blood moved more slowly…

Stripping out prana was only so tough because he had to do it so quickly. Still, messing with his blood flow rate had caused him much pain in the past, and he wasn’t eager to repeat that painful lesson. He’d just have to work on making it a subconscious task. Until then, he’d only use it when he needed his best vision.

Thinking about the world slowing down reminded him of his sparring sessions with Spear’s Edge.

Wonder what she’s up to right now? Had she returned to her homeland? Or was she still our adventuring, the same as before?

Vir wanted nothing to do with those painful emotions, so he was about to dismiss it, but stopped.

What was it Tia said back then?

Vir racked his brain to recall the memory in detail. Vason and Vir had faced off against Tia together. Neither had been able to land a hit. She moved deftly around them, teasing them at every turn.

“Sit still!” Vason had said. “You move too fast!”

Tia had poked her tongue out. “It’s not that I move fast. Just that you all move too slow!”

That’s it! I don’t need to think faster, I just need everything to slow down a bit…

It clicked like a key in a lock.

Going faster, slowing down—they’re just two sides of the same coin!

Vir returned to Haste, and this time, changed his intent. Instead of imagining himself speeding up, he willed the world to slow around him.

Slow it did. The reeds blowing in the wind stilled while sounds grew deeper. Vir hadn’t noticed any improvement to his own speed. It didn’t feel fast, very much unlike the rush of using Blink or Leap.

It wasn’t that the world had slowed suddenly. He was just moving faster relative to everything else.

This is what she felt!?

Vir could hardly believe it. Haste was powerful. But was it ever this strong? To Vir, the world moved less than half as fast as it normally did. Which meant he moved more than twice as quickly. Far faster than Tia had ever been.

Ash Prana! It’s because I’m using Ash prana, not just Earth Affinity!

But before Vir could jump for joy, he stumbled, feeling a sudden bout of weakness come over him. When he looked inside him with Prana Vision, it became obvious why. His body’s prana had nearly run dry.

Canceling the ability, Vir allowed ambient prana to flood in, replenishing himself. Clearly, Haste’s burn rate was far too much for the prana in his body alone to sustain. That was fine—there was plenty in the realm to go around—though he’d certainly have to ration the Talent outside the Ash. Either that, or learn how to modulate its output.

Vir sat beside the pond, allowing his nausea to clear. Fixing Prana Vision was good, and learning Haste even better. There was a significant difference, though, between learning an ability and mastering it.

Against the Shredder, nothing less than complete mastery would let him keep up. Vir stood, preparing himself to invoke Haste a few hundred times, but a presence behind him stopped him dead in his tracks.

“Lad? It’s been six hours. What did you promise me when you left?”

Dread trickled down Vir’s back.

Grak it! I said I’d be back in an hour!

Cirayus scowled. “Come with me. Now.”